Researchers at Michigan State University have created a see-through solar panel called "a window." Plus, LG's Music Flow speakers, a superhero workout, and an app that forces children to call their parents.

Iaz,
Jeff.
Do you think, we've got someone who wrote this in to us, last night.
Wrote me you said, do you think you'd be better off in high school if you just watched Ted Talks instead of going to class.
And it's obviously You know, a pretty ridiculous question.
I think high school, no, college, yes.
You think, you think you would have been better off watching Ted Talks instead of going to college?
I think for a lot of-
You didn't learn anything in college?
Well, I learned about credit cards in college.
I learned about debt in college.
Well, that's what college is.
Right.
College, college is designed, it's a, it's an illusion.
You think you're going there for higher learning.
You just learning how to be a, a human.
Sort of.
It's basically like a giant kindergarten class.
It's like, huh.
It's like, it's like [LAUGH] adult kindergarten.
You're just learning like, okay I can live with these other people.
There's gonna be these jerks around me.
My neighbors might suck.
And I've got a lot of crap I don't want to do.
And it's also like a poor simulation.
[LAUGH]
Yeah it's like, how, how can you, how can you survive.
A poverty simulation.
Well, the, the another thing is you realize that ramen is not your friend.
When you get older you're like, okay I don't have to do this.
I don't know if I want to.
It's kind of like the survival of the fittest thing.
It's like, okay, can subject x survive on, you know, y amount of dollars-
Mm-hm.
And, you know, an awful line of nutrition four years?
Hm.
And if you make it out okay, your gift.
Is unemployment.
Well if you're gonna go back to Ted talks.
They're free.
Right, these are these people who are like professors.
So basically.
They don't really allow dummies to give Ted talks.
It's like compelling professors.
You ever had a professor who's just bored out of their mind?
Yup.
Just basically there for tenure.
Phoning it in.
They're just like, okay, I'm going to read you the book I have written already.
Right.
Did you buy it for a hundred dollars before the semester started?
I bought it and I have to read along as, I said did you memorize your textbook?
Like yes I did.
We need to stand here, or sit here, because attendance is actually counted so.
I, I, I always think like the future's gonna be very different and when I was younger I thought the future was gonna be like sci-fi obviously because I was a child and I had childish.
Had childish aspirations and once I realized that all that was gonna be shattered and that progress was just never really happening, you, you sort of realize, well Okay, the future will be different.
But it'll all be a series of like band-aids that, that, that solve the problems of yesteryear, temporarily as it were.
Right.
So do you you think you could write this?
So like.
So I'm saying like, college will like, either go away completely, because it's so expensive and student loan debt eclipses every other American debt known to man.
It does.
So yeah, I don't know.
It just will either go away or it will be a Sirius head talk.
I don't know if you can write that on your resume.
Like experience.
What?
Instead of I went to Boston University
I watched 4800 headtalk
I have it documented, I have a certificate.
48,000 hours of Ted talks.
Yeah, and guess what?
You're now qualified to be a pilot.
[LAUGH] A
And then, and many other things.
All right, it's Wednesday, August 20th, let's start the show.
[MUSIC]
Welcome to the 404 show.
I'm Jeff Bacalar.
Joined by Iez Aktar.
Who has his masters in TEDtalk.
Masters in TEDtalk.
Ariel Nunez over on the board.
What's up dude?
What up?
Chillin.
[LAUGH]
I like.
So if you guys haven't noticed.
If you're watching the video, we have a multicolored panel behind this.
Window here.
And the days that you're blue which is what the color is today you look good there man.
You look like purply
I'm always wearing blue so it just matches all the time.
Yeah.
You're [UNKNOWN].
You're so super stylish.
Oh, why thank you.
It's freaking the truth man.
[LAUGH]
I try.
Oh man, what Justin [UNKNOWN] say?
He was like old hack.
Oh, old impressionable hack, I'm still mad about that.
[LAUGH]
Yeah.
Start a brand, old impressionable.
That's a good idea.
alright, its that time, time to look at Facebook, which is what we're doing now because we don't respect Twitter anymore.
Time to check out the top trends on Facebook.
So Ariel Nunez you have, I'm gonna give you, five options.
Okay.
These are good options cuz they're all good stories.
The first one is Pierce Brosnan, something happened with Pierce Brosnan.
You know who that is right?
Yeah, I do.
I do.
Curt Schilling?
Mm-hm.
Curt Schilling is a, is a baseball player-
Familiar, familiar.
Or he was.
Turned failed game developer.
Don't remember that.
That was a decent game, though.
It wasn't his fault.
Well, it was his fault he dumped all his own money into it.
Mike Ditka.
OK.
This is all of my childhood here.
Yeah, seriously.
[LAUGH] What else.
The Jungle Book, I'll keep it with your childhood.
OK.
OK.
Or Superbowl XLIX which is what, what numbers' that?
49?
Sure.
59?
I think it's 59.
Or something.
Yeah, all right so there you go.
What do you want?
Ditka.
Ditka.
So Mike Ditka is dealing with some Red Skins controversy, so apparently he's, he's in like, political correct hot water.
He's been calling the political correct idiots of America.
And apparently he is really upset with the amount of PC, political correctness, that happens in our fine country.
Oh, yeah.
And you know, obviously the Redskins have come under fire because you know, the name of the team.
Is basically an ethnic slur.
Is a derogatory, sort of ethnic slur.
And so they're keeping it that way.
They're keep, so the Redskins are staying the Redskins?
So far.
Okay, I'm.
I'm a little, I don't know, I'm on the fence with that because, not because there, there should, should be a seemingly racist name for a team.
Mm-hm.
I mean that's not cool.
But I do believe that the vast majority of people who.
You know, it's become, it's transcended the.
I don't know [INAUDIBLE].
This is not going to end well, at all.
I think I should just stop.
Yeah, you might want to go with that.
So, yeah.
No.
But, you know what I'm about to say, right?
You know what I'm going to say.
Like, certain phrases and words.
Stop meaning what they originally meant.
Yeah.
Like Redskins to me does not mean Native Americans.
It means
It's a football team.
Freaking football team.
Yeah.
[LAUGH]
Right?
Just like the same thing with St.
Johns in, in the New York area.
When there was a Redman.
He used to be called the Redman.
Now there's a Red.
Now it's the red storm, what the f's a red storm, is what I ask, one, and number two, yeah, red men
Yeah, but see, they took out, they changed it to storm, but didn't change the red part.
Yeah, exactly,
Don't be red, I mean red skins, just rebrand and make 'em potatoes.
Right, that's all you have to do.
Keep the stupid name,
Yeah, but potatoes aren't native to the Washington area.
So you then.
[LAUGH]
That's, that's the problem.
You know I don't, I don't know if American organized football is native to anything other than like.
Yeah.
I'm in that area.
It is funny though, they, they found a photo of Mike Ditka when he was like, where he was like red faced.
I don't know if you seen this on Facebook.
Was he just like.
Where he just looks like he's been eating sausage for about about a 90 minutes.
I will find that.
Oh, there it is.
Polish [CROSSTALK] [LAUGH]
That is some really clever art for that, that article.
Yeah from the Chicago.
He literally has a red face on.
It's not like he's.
This isn't, should listen to audio only.
This isn't like someone putting on red makeup.
He is just.
Obviously plastered.
He looks like a lobster.
He is just red faced.
Polish sausage.
He actually matches this girls arm here, or dress [LAUGH] excuse me.
Da Bears, da bears.
I, I, I'm curious though why the Redskins a target, you got the Indians, you got the Braves, you got like tons of other people.
Yeah they are also targeted.
Are they?
The black hawks, definitely.
That's cos the red skins management say the dumbest things in public.
You're right, you look at the Black Hawks, the Black Hawks is probably the oldest team out of all of that.
They've been a team for ninety years.
Man, all the native american themed teams have the best jerseys, too.
So, I dunno, why're you gonna end that?
These are the best jerseys, the Blackhawks have the best jersey in all of sports.
One transcended the racial slur, their jerseys are awesome, that's the reason to keep this incredibly dated thing I mean, as long as they don't come up with something stupid, like when the Washington Bullets turned into the Washington Wizzards.
With that really terrible logo that kinda looked like a swastika.
[LAUGH]
That was a huge mistake!
What?
Pull that up.
I will find you the Washington Wizards logo.
It looked like a swastika?
[LAUGH] How could that ever pass through quality assurance?
How could that ever make it down the line to print?
Dude, look at this thing!
Let me see.
That doesn't look like a swastika.
[LAUGH] &gt; Yes, it does look like a swastika.
Look at this line.
Watch.
I will, I will draw the line with my mouse.
[LAUGH]
I don't, don't draw the line.
[LAUGH]
Don't draw a swastika.
That clearly.
Wait, now swastikas weren't always, like, associated with Nazis.
Yeah.
No, no I know the reverse swastika is like a symbol of peace, isn't it.
But this is, okay, also this logo is stupid.
It's a stupid logo, it's offensive to Wizards everywhere.
[LAUGH]
That's the point, if you're going to do this, make it right.
I don't know man.
Don't accidentally put a swastika as your logo after saying you were offended by the violence in Washington DC.
Right.
That's why they changed their logo.
Bears.
The bears.
Isn't part of that.
Ditka.
Ditka.
[UNKNOWN] Ditka.
I think it was Chris Farley's character who did that.
Yeah.
So yeah.
I dunno that's why he's trending right now.
I mean he clearly just.
Give zero Fs, right?
I mean, this guy's just saying what is, what's on his mind.
The other one that I was hoping you would pick would be Pierce Brosnan.
Yeah, yeah.
I'm actually curious about that too.
Jimmy Fallon got to play Golden Eye last night on late night with Pierce Brosnan.
He gets to do all the cool stuff.
Wow.
And it's actually Nintendo 64, it's not like.
I know, they didn't get like an emulator.
They did the whole thing.
Pierce Brosnan like 70 still look amazing.
[LAUGH] I know.
And yeah.
It was cool.
They played, he said he only played it once before.
How the hell did that happen?
It's like the best.
Wouldn't that be weird though if you're the character of the game?
Like I don't know if I want to play as me.
Yeah.
He's on the box art.
Yeah, dude, professional athletes play Madden and NHL all the time.
Yeah but he's Bond.
It's not like it's, if it was like.
Tennis is like thousands of players, if it's basketball, thousands of players, this is bond, there you go.
It's pretty rad.
I used to play this game too man.
Of course man, who didn't play this game.
It's just, I get really jealous of Jimmy Fallon sometimes.
And it's stuff like this.
This in particular.
This [LAUGH] this particular segment really-
Tell you what, somebody go out there in the, create a new version of this video where you have Jeff on the top right, reacting
[LAUGH]
to playing with Pierce Brosnan.
I'll give you all the b-roll you need for me to act like I'm enjoying it.
You could do it right now, right to camera.
Show off your.
Pierce Brosnan face.
Oh, it's so awesome.
It's a great idea.
It's a great idea.
That's the true testament to the whole thing is how good of an idea that was.
And that you know, whether it was [UNKNOWN] or it was writers, that was awesome.
OK, let us move along.
It's time for a segment we're calling Click Bait.
Yeah, Click Bait.
The top story on CNet.
What are your guesses.
Oh, I thought Areo was going to play [CROSSTALK]
You jumped in too quick, hold on a second.
Oh,
There was no clickable, I had to do it.
Alright, so what's clickbait for today.
iPhone, next.
Oh, it's an iPhone.
Alright, we're not gonna do an iPhone story.
It's a rumor, no actual news.
Alright, no thanks iPhone.
We'll move along.
Hey, I'm curious.
What is it?
What?
Nope.
You don't care Ariel.
Stop acting like you care.
I wanna know the rumor.
I have an iPhone.
It's like a RAM rumor
I'll tell you when you're older, how about that.
That's OK.
Do you care about like RAM rumors?
No, not really.
RAM rumors would be a better name for the Redskins.
[LAUGH] There's no way, there's no way that would work.
Just think of the logo.
Ram Roamer.
No one's buying a jersey that says Ram Roamer on it.
Yet.
The Washington Ram Roamer.
Alright, somebody make a jersey.
Alright, OK, **** the iPhone.
Let's move along.
What have we got?
We've got some pretty nifty things.
We got this.
See-through solar panel.
Now, you know one of the things about solar panels is that you can't see through them so basically you're stuck with this really ugly look when it comes to solar panels.
But this, I think it's out of the University of Michigan, they actually came up with a way to do a see-through solar panel.
And it's really not efficient, it's about like one percent?
They made a window is what they did.
[LAUGH]
Well it actually harnesses some energy for once, as opposed to just being a window.
I guarantee you can siphon some energy out of a window if you just had the right wire.
[LAUGH]
Well I mean, this is the actual panel, if you look at the video it's like you can see the colors through it.
Cool.
So,
Michigan State University, excuse me.
How well's it work?
Total efficiency, about 1%.
That's really bad.
So it's a lot less efficient than Superman.
Right, that goes without saying, but, what was like the best panel?
The most efficient something like 44%.
So that's.
19% is ideal, apparently, according to this, study.
So there you go.
So that's terrible.
So what's the point?
Are they gonna get better at it?
Yeah, that is the point.
This is the beginning.
Cause if this can be see-through and they can increase efficiency over years, that means every freaking window, every piece of glass including your phone could actually be a solar panel.
OK that's cool, because I was about to say this doesn't sound practical.
But because it's just like why not, your windows don't face the sun all day.
They don't face the sky all day.
Your roof might get sunlight.
So if you had a sun roof you could have some nice.
Yeah I guess.
Alright.
Or a car.
You have like a window and you wanted to make sure some extra energy somewhere.
It's weird that there's just people thinking this up.
I feel like, you know, we haven't even perfected solar panels as they are now.
And that's why, 'cos you can't see through the damn things.
Yeah, but I don't think this is something, people were like, we're really gonna hit the pinnacle when we finally look through solar panels.
So you wanna go to Michigan State University and go, you guys are wasting money.
Well no, I want 100% efficiency.
On the regular solar panel, then we move to the ones you can see through.
Well why not about 100%?
Why not, let's break the rules of thermodynamics.
130%.
You can't get.
I'm not a doctor but you can't do more than 100.
You're not a doctor.
OK.
So far we've established laying that out there.
You're not a mathematician, you're not a doctor.
I'm nothing, is what I'm learning very quickly.
I am nothing.
That is far too deep.
Yeah well, you know, that's the kind of show we're gonna have today.
Alright, gonna go deep.
It'll cut deep.
Alright.
There's a new thing today, that was announced from LG.
LG is making something called music flow speakers.
What is that?
Alright, so it's kinda like a Sonos, right.
So you got these, you got this device, and you can have them around your house, and you can do a multi-room audio kinda thing.
And they released like one of the craziest videos I've seen for this kind of device.
And it works with WiFi, you could pair it with your phone using NSD, that's pretty neat.
So you walk up to it and just tap, and it's paired up with it.
Multi-room audio.
But one of the weirder things you can do it with it is they have something called LG Home Chat.
And you can actually chat with your speaker.
What?
And you can ask it things like what was the official press release?
Users can remotely ask LG Music Flow on the way home for a song and playlist recommendation suitable for dinner.
Now I can't tell if this is really cool that you can send a chat to a device saying-
Like a text message?
Through Lime The actual app, Lime, it's like an IM client.
Yeah.
So it's kind of like a text but you're just sending it to this app.
And you can talk to your speakers.
Is this cool or stupid?
I think it would be cool if I could I'm not cool just yet with like playlists from robots.
Like, I guess I'll warm up to that.
But yeah, I think it's kind of neat that I could like give commands through what feels like a text message.
I just wonder, I wonder about it's actual.
Functionality, like, if you're asking for a play list, you have to have some special ways to ask it.
Because home chat, this is not the first device that has home chat, for LG, this is this weird idea that you can chat with it.
I can be like, I want to hear some awesome workout music, will it actually bother to do that, or will it be like, please define what this term means.
But it seems like a, I think
Like, how smart is it.
I wanna say it's cool.
It seems.
I think it's a decent idea but, but I'm glad they kind of buried it a little bit.
Like it's an after thought.
It's like oh, hey.
We did this wireless speaker system, you can take it with you on the go.
Little foot note, you can IM with it.
Just if you wanna do that.
We're not, we're pushing that, we're not shoving that down your throat.
But if you do wanna explore that well, there's, there's.
there's room for that.
There's a speaker for lonely people?
Yeah, maybe.
Really?
I mean, does it write back and tell you like endearing things?
Like your music taste isn't ****.
[CROSSTALK]
You're, you're fun, people like you.
I don't know if they have a self esteem booster built-in.
I haven't checked that out yet.
You know, be like you should ask her out.
I think she's into you.
I think the playlist mix you made for her is perfect.
Yeah.
This is tight, this is going to work.
If it doesn't that's my bad.
Not you, it's me.
I think you've come up with a new evolution.
So far you've told Michigan to change their efficiency standards.
LG, we need more self esteem boosting capabilities.
Yeah I"m available.
That, you know, I'm available.
You're not a doctor or mathematician but you've got ideas.
But I got, and I got good life advice.
Or the most.
[LAUGH] That's what I, part of my.
I'm laughing too hard at that concept.
[LAUGH]
okay.
Moving along.
People believe technology is gonna help them get in better shape, alright?
All this time.
Fit bits and lot of gadgets, lot of apps, lot of software that is designed to make you believe you're gonna be better off using it.
Here's something called the Superhero Workout app.
How, how's this gonna make everyone in better, get in better shape.
This is from the same guys that did the Zombies run, and like the walks, they're used to making fitness apps, and the way this thing works, it's a $5 app, it's suppose to be released today, I still haven't found it on the app store, and it uses the iPhone's camera to watch you do workouts, and the idea here is, like, where's the superhero part, right?
The superhero part is that.
You are like, you're piloting, something kind of like Iron Man effectively.
Sure.
And it's by doing these motions that you can win the missions.
Right, so they're gameifying working out with a layer of CG to it.
Right, so you have like your phone sitting on side to compare with your Apple TV so you can see what is going on that way so you can actually get feedback.
This might be one of those cool or stupid kind of things as well.
I, I think it's actually kind of a good idea, cuz it, I listened to the audio of it, the guy sounds just like Jarvis.
[LAUGH] And he's telling you, like, you know, 12 more push ups to do.
And you're like oh, cool, thanks, Jarvis.
See, see, that's a good idea, and I feel like that's where the Wii Fit and the Kinect workout, you know, pieces of software of the world have failed.
Right?
Like, you know, I know Ubisoft had a workout thing that I don't know how well it did, obviously Wii Fit did well, but it's not something that people still sort of refer to as part of their workout routine.
And I think this was the goal, even though I don't think this app is gonna accomplish the level of detail that console games could.
But that, it, it's sort of ambition is in the right place, or at least, you know, it's like combine this with the Wii stuff and the Kinect stuff and then you have the ultimate one.
Well that, and then you don't have to do the dedication to, okay I'm gonna buy a Xbox connect or a Playstation Eye to watch me work out.
This is totally cheaper.
You've got a phone, it's gonna run Android soon, it's gonna apparently have Chromecast support one day, but right now it's only AppleTV and iOS only.
And when it comes out.
Yeah.
Must be that way.
I think it is a nice little way to get, I don't wanna say kids, but the idea of like, okay, Marvel movies are really hot right now, superhero stuff is super hot, so it seems like this would get people into the mood of working out, because it's just pretty cool looking, the screenshots look good, video looked decent, although I'm curious if it works very well, if the camera works very well, does it actually capture.
I mean, I'm still to this day, ultra skeptical about all the work out stuff.
Like nothing will ever replace you just getting off your **** and making that commitment.
Doesn't matter how many freaking apps you got or how many bracelets you wear or how many stupid alarms that go off.
It's about you.
And so far there's nothing.
That convinces me that it will make a difference in anyone's life who believes that only software will get them off their ****.
So much more great life advice right there.
I'm just [INAUDIBLE] learning everything today
You're totally right the thing is the studies have shown that these jaw bone ups and all these other fitness gadgets.
What they do is they just make you more aware to work out.
Right.
It doesn't actually.
Which will probably make you more depressed.
In theory, you're like, oh look, my stats are better.
I'm walking an extra five steps or whatever it is.
Right.
Sure.
It gives you motivation but it doesn't necessarily cause you to.
Of course.
Motivation is the hardest thing.
I think to gameify this.
Like a wall sit, like this is a [INAUDIBLE] of a wall sit, ever do a wall sit, this wall squat thing.
I did, like in PT I think.
It's so much fun, right?
No, it's really not fun, it really hurts your quads.
Like, if for some reason you're like, watch, watch this change, and finally the timer goes off.
Maybe it'll be fun, but.
I mean, I'm not saying the solution isn't out there.
Someone will come up with something that will be the most successful version of it.
Whether it's a way to, like, get your friends to record videos to, like, egg you on, or something like that, and combine that into a workout out.
You wanna twitchify it.
Yeah, something like that, or, maybe if you don't get up and do 10 push-ups, your phone's gonna brick.
You know?
Or something like that.
Like, like, fatal sort of, live or die situations, in tech that, that really like, this is, I mean this is it!
This is the last line of defense.
Like, you, you, you've tried everything.
Nothings getting you to work out.
All right, let's go nuclear and let's see what happens.
On you phone.
So, basically hold your phone hostage?
I mean, for people there are too many people who want to lose weight, but don't have the cognitive fortitude to do so.
So, I think we gotta go nuclear on their ****.
On their gigantic ****.
It'd be less gigantic and play for the Redskins.
That's what I'm saying, I, I mean you can't and play for the reds [LAUGH] .Right, but there's got to be a way.
Like for me, do I, outside of ice hockey, I don't do a lot of working out, maybe once or twice a week outside of ice hockey, but the ice hockey is what gets me going and I love to do it, so that's my, that's my release.
For some people who don't.
You know, do that.
What else can they do?
They have to work out.
You can't just sit there, you can't just sit there.
Have your couch just kick you out.
That's the ultimate.
Get out of here!
That's nuclear.
That's the nuclear option!
I say we go nuclear.
I know it sounds crazy.
[LAUGH] But I say we go nuclear.
I think that's the way you go, you're right.
Let's completely.
No, wait.
I shouldn't be saying anything like that.
No, you shouldn't, you shouldn't.
Speaking of going nuclear, here's an app that gives kids a similar conundrum.
A mother has created an app that prevents her children, or anyone's children, from ignoring calls.
And here's how it works.
The phone basically locks up.
Until you call your mom back.
In, that's the elevator pitch for the phone.
So you install this app.
You install this app on a kid's phone and that's basically what it does.
It says you can unlock remotely and the child, or you can set it to the mode where the child only has two options.
They can either call you back.
Call and emergency responder where it's like, do I call my mom or 911?
I guess I gotta call my mom.
You can't text, no games, no friends, contact, nothing, until they call you back.
I think it's a brilliant idea.
It's called ignore no more, right.
So it seems like it could be for the overly attached girlfriend meme.
As well.
It was very like, sneaky.
Hm.
I mean, not sneaky but like.
Look, this is for someone between the ages of like 13 and 17.
Right?
I don't think you can give this to any.
No one younger really has a phone, right.
Or do they?
Do like, eight year olds have phones?
I think they do nowadays.
Are they, are they-
I don't think they're connected to anything, but-
Are they supposed to?
I think they're more like iPods [INAUDIBLE].
My four year old niece has a Ga, has a Samsung tablet, but it's like, it's like.
A kids' tablet.
You can't do **** on it.
It's just worthless, you know, like it's got Android and like, I don't know.
Can't make calls with it.
Is this solving anything or is just an issue between the parent and kid.
Don't get me wrong there's a little bit of gimmick here obviously, but for some people, like look, I'll be the first to admit it.
Growing up, to this day, I'm a grown **** man.
To this day, I still have an issue with like.
Sayin' hi to my mom.
You know?
Yeah.
This is a psychological issue-
So- right.
It's not- I don't know if this app-
This is something that's like deep-seated that maybe isn't resolved in an app.
So would you want to just combine this with the nuclear option, that if you don't call back your mom your phone is bricked in three hours.
Or you have the option to do 30 push-ups.
Instead of calling your mom,
Well, it's like, if you're not gonna call your mom, you make sure you're taking care of yourself son, with a scarf on.
Defiinitely in Aruba right now, so there's no way she's watching this show, so yeah I would prefer to that.
So, take a picture of you right now, are you safe, That's when you send that one text, you're safe, you can use your.
Well, maybe that's the upgrade to this.
I like that.
That's a good idea.
Like are you being a boy or girl?
Yes.
I'm into it, man.
We're into it.
This app's two bucks.
Cheap
Two bucks well worth it to repair a child and mother relationship.
Frightening.
And will absolutely solve everything.
I, yeah, that's what, I'm sure the reviews say that right now.
Solve [CROSSTALK]
Yeah, all the reviews.
Five stars, priceless, invaluable, saved my family.
That's exctly what it says.
We bought this app twice.
We bought it twice cuz it was so good.
Alright, it's calls from the public time, ladies and gentleman.
Time to show the love.
Call me 866-404-CNET.
Yesterday, we talked briefly about.
The HTC phone, the HTC 1M8.
The 1M8.
The 1M8.
It's the HTC 1M8 for Windows.
Right.
That's the.
Just flows right off the tongue there.
And I asked, who are you people with Windows phones?
How did this happen?
What set of events dominoed that led you to own a Windows phone?
And you know, we had at least 12 people write in and said they had Windows phone.
Which, if you look at like how many people listen to the show and how many people in the real world.
It kind of matches up.
You don't have to sample size?
I think that sample size, as, as, as small of a fraction as it is, I think it kind of.
I think the math worked out.
Yeah, I think Windows phones got like a two or three percent market share.
Oh, then.
And if I'm wrong, I'm sure you guys will write in.
Yeah.
It's definitely small.
So, maybe it's not.
Maybe it's not completely representative of our listenership, regardless, here is someone who called in and said, hey, I got a windows phone, here's why I like it.
So we'll just have to take this persons word for it i guess.
Hey [INAUDIBLE] this is [INAUDIBLE] from Maine, I was just calling to say that, ever since Windows phone has come out, I have literally only met one person.
With a Windows phone, so it that tells you anything, love the show.
So this dude calls in and doesn't even use Windows phone, he's like I don't use Windows phone, I just know 1 person.&gt;&gt;I think the amount of times I've seen Windows phones in the wild&gt;&gt; Zero.&gt;&gt; No, I've seen it like twice.&gt;&gt; For me it's zero.&gt;&gt; Twice, but I've also seen like a Rio, like mp 3 player from like 10 years ago, I've seen that once in the past 2 years.
Somebody is still using the super old set.
I see people still using stuff like that.
Every now and then I'll see like a disc man.
I see more flip phones then I see disc man.
I know I've seen that.
Seen way, I've seen people with their flip phone and I'm just like what is happening.
I bet you, I bet you flip phones are bigger than 2% of the market.
Yeah.
Actually 3.4%.
I mean, in my house it is.
In my house.
If you consider like the original four of my family, it's 25%.
That is scary.
Sweet Lou, still rocking the flip phone.
I think he's gonna turn to the dark side soon though.
Here's.
Okay, here's a dude.
Here's Jeff.
Who actually uses a A windows phone
[UNKNOWN] from professor Jeff to Jeff's question, I am a windows phone person by few choices at the University where a blackberry I think it's a v ten or a Nokia Lumia whatever the one Verizon has I think its the ten eighty.
Really love Windows Phone, couldn't see myself using anything else.
Very user friendly and it works for what I use it for.
All right.
But he's sounds, okay.
So he, so he's making caveats right?
So he's saying it's what he got through his school cuz he's a professor.
So it's like probably a free thing, or heavily discounted thing.
So.
As long as you have to pay for it, there's they [LAUGH]
[LAUGH] Right.
It's, It's not a bad device like if you.
And we're not saying that, it's not about that.
It's like people who.
You know.
Why did you choose RC Cola over Coke and Pepsi, is the real question.
Well, I think RC Cola's not a good soda, but, yeah, well, that's a bad analogy.
[CROSSTALK].
The analogy is like something that's perfectly fine.
RC Cola doesn't suck.
Yeah, I don't, I don't remember me being like, oh yeah, I came out to [CROSSTALK].
So if you drink RC Cola, and you, definitely write in to tell us how awesome it is.
I don't know.
What would be the equivalent, then, on the soda?
Well, everyone understands what we're saying.
Yeah.
It's weird.
It's super weird.
All right.
We got we got some e-mails, too, regarding the phone stuff.
Here's Richard.
Richard says, I use a Windows phone but I got it because I was a couple months out of out from the end of my contract with Verizon.
And my Nexus was useless.
I didn't wanna pony up for a full price phone, so I bought a $50 HTC X8.
I don't even.
What the hell's that?
I guess.
On the hardware front, I like it, it feels great, it's solidly built, the software is underwhelming for starters before Windows Phone 8.1.
It was frustrating because there was no notification about.
If you miss a pop up, you won't see it again unless you go to the home screen.
Yeah, that was a failing of Windows eight, of Windows phone eight for a little bit.
Eight point one gives you an Android style shade pull down with notifications and quick settings.
So all it's doing is copying iOS and Android.
Which is fine, I guess.
That's, that's not a problem but.
You know, it's like what makes, why would you go there?
Like, there's less apps, so the only thing that would make you wanna switch is a somehow superior experience.
The only thing that got me considering a Windows phone ever, was that Nokia phone with that crazy 41 megapixel camera on the back.
Right.
That I thought was a really good hook because nothing else had that.
It's another gimmick.
That's the only way.
I'm like this has something that nothing else has.
Otherwise you're right.
Because the apps are pretty much the same.
The selection yeah, it's not as big a selection.
The serious apps that you want are there.
Right.
It's not like it doesn't have 3 billion apps.
But you don't use 3 billion apps.
Announce.
And this is the HTC found eight x thing whatever this is like.
You've seen this thing.
Does not bring ring a bell.
Does not ring a bell at all?
No.
No.
No idea.
It's got Beats on it.
It's got Beats.
Beats.
Great.
No?
Great.
Okay.
Good for that.
I tried.
Good for the phone.
Achille writes in I am also a Windows phone user.
It's amazing how many people tweeted and wrote and called.
It's crazy.
Few reasons why I ended up with the Lumia Icon.
I wanted away from Google services, yes I wear a tinfoil hat.
All right, enjoy life on Mars.
The iPhone wasn't for me, I have adult sized hands.
[LAUGH] That's a good joke.
That is a fair joke sir.
The icon has some of the best hardware available on any platform.
The camera is amazing.
It records in Dolby 5.1.
That seems cool but worthless right?
I mean what kind of video are you are taking that you need 5.1?
You get 5.1 separation out of this.
I'm sure it could, I'm sure it.
Small device?
Yeah, how does it do discreet channel?
We're not, we're not going down that.
Yeah.
Anyway.
The user experience on Windows Phone 8 was great from every review I read.
There are drawbacks though.
Some apps aren't available currently and are slow to arrive.
We talked about that.
I don't know.
He does't make that much of a good argument but apparently there's even a CNET app that allows him to watch the 404 on his phone which I mean, you sold me on that.
If you're gonna be on Windows phone you might as well watch the show.
At least you know there's a way out.
At least you know it's not all, it's not all dark.
If you dislike Google and you think the iPhone's too small, Windows phone is an option.
Finally from Jason we talked about the film Edge of Tomorrow and how Warner Brothers was seemingly rebranding it.
Jason just wanted to write in quickly and say that was actually a Japanese sci-fi novel.
It even had a managa adaptation called All You Need is Kill and was actually rebranded in the US as Edge of Tomorrow.
Did not know that.
Not sure if that's true.
It's on Wikipedia so either he put it into Wikipedia or he cut and pasted out of Wikipedia.
Yeah.
So it's true one way or another.
Now.
Someone else called up and said that they still aren't sure about them changing the The, the name of the movie.
Apparently after all they were like trying it out and read it, sniffed out some of the the test the testing,
Yeah there's still a controversy on this.
I guess we'll find out when it actually hits DVD knocked over,
I mean, I think it's even if they don't do anything there's already enough buzz.
That eclipses with the buzz.
The actual.
When it actually had its theatrical release.
So.
Very interesting.
All right.
That's it for us, guys.
866-404-CNET.
That is our phone number.
You can reach us through email as well the404@cnet.com.
Subscribe to our subreddit and at reddit.com/r/404, our Facebook, twitter, instagram.
All at your disposal.
Tomorrow we will be running a classic rerun.
Which I have to go to the subreddit and find out.
So, classic we don't even know what it is.
Yeah, super classic it's very memorable.
And then Friday Steve Gutenberg back on the program.
Next week I am on vacation so we'll be doing reruns and then I think [UNKNOWN] is gonna host the show.
I'm gonna try.
If it goes well I'll do another one.
And if it doesn't go well.
You won't even know.
They won't even publish it.
So, so keep on.
You'll never know.
Follow us on Twitter for the latest on that, and I will see you guys back here Friday.
Rerun tomorrow.
And that's going to do it for us, Until then I'm Jeff Backular.
I'm Ira Zakhtar.
I'm Ariel Nunez.
This has been the 404 show, high tech, low brow.
We'll see you soon.